Catholic Church Ready To Walk Over D.C. Gay Marriage

By

Carlos Santoscoy

|
November 11, 2009

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
said Wednesday it's prepared walk away from providing thousands of
people with social services over a gay marriage bill nearing final
approval by the D.C. City Council, the Washington Post
reported.

On Tuesday, the district's Committee on
Public Safety & Judiciary voted in favor of Council member David
Catania's gay marriage bill. The committee tweaked the bill's
language, removing a provision that would have ended domestic
partnerships in the district in 2010. Under the bill, religious
organizations would not be required to perform gay weddings, but the
committee voted down a proposed amendment that would have allowed
individuals, including private business owners, to refuse to provide
goods and services related to the nuptials of gay couples.

The exemption was introduced by Council
member Yvette Alexander, who argued that it would protect individuals
who oppose gay marriage on religious grounds.

“The intent is to protect against
liability for people who say [gay marriage] is against their
religious beliefs,” she told gay weekly Washington
Blade.

“There are really some individuals
where everything is guided strongly by their religious beliefs. And
I think this would just put an imposition on them,” she added.

Committee members disagreed and killed
the amendment with a 4-to-1 vote. Only Alexander voted in favor of
her amendment.

On Wednesday, the Archdiocese released
a statement threatening to pull its support of all social services in
the city unless lawmakers approved the amendment or made other
accommodations.

“If the city requires this, we can't
do it,” Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, told the
Post. “The city is saying in order to provide social
services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem.”

The church currently serves
approximately 68,000 people with adoption, homelessness and health
care. Catholic Charities, the church's social services arm,
contracts with the city to manage nearly a third of its homeless
shelters.

Gay activists accused the church of
trying to “blackmail the city.”

“The issue here is they are using
public funds, and to allow people to discriminate with public money
is unacceptable,” Peter Rosenstein, president of the Campaign for
All D.C. Families, told the paper.

Roman Catholics are quickly catching up
to other denominations that have traditionally opposed gay rights,
most notably Evangelical Christians and the Mormon Church. Catholic
groups poured millions of dollars to anti-gay marriage referendum
campaigns in California and Maine. Pope Benedict frequently speaks
out against giving gay men and lesbians the right to marry; often in
Spain, where such unions are legal.

Barring intervention by Congress, which
has final say in the city's laws, the bill is widely expected to win
final approval during a December 1 City Council meeting.